Melanie Lynskey (R) spoke about the ‘generous’ support of her former co-stars (Picture: Rex)
Melanie Lynskey has revealed the support she received from co-stars Cate Blanchett and Sarah Paulson when she was struggling with the practicalities of being a working mother.
This included the ‘generous’ offer of their trailers so she could breastfeed in private.
The Yellowjackets actress starred opposite the duo in acclaimed 2019 historical mini-series Mrs America, which followed the unsuccessful bid to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment in America in the 1970s and the fierce backlash to it led by conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly (Blanchett).
In December 2018, Lynskey, 45, had welcomed her first child – a daughter – with husband Jason Ritter.
However, she found her time on set with Mrs America challenging – although it was significantly helped by the assistance, both emotional and practical, that Blanchett and Paulson offered.
‘It was really hard. Cate validated my feelings. Y’know, I would come to set and burst into tears and she would be like, “Aw honey…” She was very, very there for me in that way,’ the actress recalled.
The Yellowjackets star was on set as a working mum for the first time shooting Mrs America (Picture: Monica Schipper/FilmMagic)
Sarah Paulson and Cate Blanchett were singled out by Lynskey as offering their trailers to her so she could breastfeed and pump in private (Picture: Sabrina Lantos/FX/Kobal/Rex/Shutterstock)
With both Blanchett and Paulson higher up the call sheet than Lynskey on a project that also starred Rose Byrne, Elizabeth Banks, Uzo Aduba and Tracey Ullman, they also offered very helpful practical assistance, courtesy of their trailers, so Lynskey would have somewhere comfortable to breastfeed and pump in private.
‘These generous women were giving me the things that were afforded to them in their contracts so that my life as a mother would be easier,’ she told The Independent.
It also helped Lynskey be prepared to negotiate better for herself in the future as a working mum.
Of her Yellowjackets contract, she added: ‘I asked for the world. I wasn’t going to do that again!’
Lynskey as Rosemary Thomson in Mrs America (Picture: Sabrina Lantos/FX/Kobal/Rex/Shutterstock)
With husband Jsson Ritter, with whom she shares a four-year-old daughter (Picture: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic)
The actress recently sat down with Metro.co.uk and said that filming will get ‘complicated’ on the show as her daughter gets older.
Season two of the show hasn’t even finished streaming on Paramount Plus yet but it’s already been confirmed that the show will return for a third instalment.
Explaining that she lives in Vancouver for six full months while filming Yellowjackets, doting mum Melanie hinted that moving back and forth will likely get trickier for her daughter the older she gets.
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‘My daughter is four, she’s in preschool, so it doesn’t really matter yet. But in a year or so. It’s gonna get really complicated,’ she admitted.
Starring the likes of Christina Ricci, Juliette Lewis and Elijah Wood alongside Lynskey, the series follows a girls’ high school football team’s quest for survival in the wilderness after their plane crashes on the way to the 1996 nationals, toggling back and forth between then and their adult selves in the present day.
Yellowjackets season two is streaming now on Paramount Plus.
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Lynskey called her time on set for the show ‘really hard’.